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I had been disappointed by the grandiose church and commercialism in Assisi; perhaps my husband thought a visit to the home of saints Benedict and Scholastica might do me good. In any event, it gave him an excuse to do more driving in the Italian countryside. We did not realize the side trip would take us into a very long tunnel, cut through the mountain, from which I began to fear we might never emerge.
This time of Covid-19 has brought our time in that tunnel to mind. Both the virus and the mountain pass came upon us rather unexpectedly, both narrowed our ability to see very far ahead, both engendered some anxiety about coming out of the experience. When that comparison entered my consciousness, I found myself hoping that our emergence from sheltering at home will, as much as possible, parallel the emergence from that tunnel.
For the trip to Norcia did provide solace. We found a small, intimate church just off a quiet, beautiful town center. The simplicity and lack of busyness was healing; it offered a perspective, a sense of proportion, that was comforting. Perhaps when we emerge from this time of Covid-19, the world will look more pleasing. Perhaps we will seek to create religious and governmental institutions less interested in the label Christian, more interested in being Christ-like.